Explore every episode of the podcast The Mind Room

In the final episode of The World Cup Psychology Show, Professor Geir Jordet and Tim Harkness, Chelsea’s former head of Sport Science & Psychology, join the show to discuss how World Cup trends - from in-game breaks to squandered ‘stutter kicks’ - might influence domestic and international football over the next 12 months.

We dissect the fallout from Eng…

How do you actually take sport psychology from the confines of the classroom to the pressure cooker of being pitchside? For some, the subject is still something shrouded in mystery (or treated as a purely office-based practice, to the point where one recent job ad was promoted with a picture of an empty desk and chair).

But we’ve seen how concepts from …

In the latest episode of The World Cup Psychology Show, Tim Harkness, Chelsea’s former head of Sport Science & Psychology, who worked with Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge, and David Wheeler, one of the only former pro footballers turned psychologists working in the game, join me to look back at England’s win against Norway - and preview the semi-final against Argentina.

We explain why Thomas Tuchel’s post-match comments are perhaps a sign of the ‘psychologically safe’ environment England seem to have created, how to turn Leo Messi’s threat into an opportunity that can be exploited and what confidence actually gives elite athletes on the field of play.

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Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

In the latest episode of The World Cup Psychology Show, Tim Harkness, Chelsea’s former head of Sport Science & Psychology, who worked with Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge, and David Wheeler, one of the only former pro footballers turned psychologists working in the game, join me to look back at England’s win against Mexico.

We examine the unerring focus Tuchel’s displayed in the Azteca couldron, why Jordan Pickford’s on-pitch personality was tailor-made for this type of match and why defending for your lives might actually be one of the tactical setups most conducive to creating a collective flow state.

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

Four billion tigers. That’s the metaphorical audience some of Italy greatest players described facing in the final of the last World Cup on American soil.

In 1994, it was too much for the likes of Roberto Baggio, Franco Baresi and Roberto Donadoni. Baggio’s skied shootout penalty, which ended Italy’s hopes of winning the tournament, was arguably as much …

In the latest episode of The World Cup Psychology Show, Tim Harkness, Chelsea’s former head of Sport Science & Psychology, who worked with Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge, and David Wheeler, one of the only former pro footballers turned psychologists working in the game, join me to look back at England’s win against DR Congo.

We delve into how England dealt with the shock of conceeding an early goal, why recognising the difference between fear and danger is so cruical to playing under pressure and how Tuchel’s side might adapt their approach to deal with the physiological and psychological challenges of playing a last-16 match 7,200ft above sea level.

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

In a world where you can’t seem to go a second without another datapoint passing through your inbox or IMs, the inability to incorporate psychology within performance analysis remains something of a mystery.

The technology to monitor on-field behaviour exists. Champions Leagues sides have shown that analysing gestures such as arm movements can credibly …

In the latest episode of The World Cup Psychology Show, Tim Harkness, Chelsea’s former head of Sport Science & Psychology, who worked with Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge, and David Wheeler, one of the only former pro footballers turned psychologists working in the game, join me to look back at England’s draw against Ghana.

We consider how Tuchel, his squad and backroom staff will react to the result, analyse the pysche behind Ghana’s rearguard action and examine the challenge-focused psychological framing pivotal to England’s potential progress in the tournament.

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

In the latest episode of The World Cup Psychology Show, Tim Harkness, Chelsea’s former head of Sport Science & Psychology, who worked with Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge, and David Wheeler, one of the only former pro footballers turned psychologists working in the game, join me to look back at England’s win against Croatia.

We consider what did Tuchel said in the dressing room to inspire his side’s second half showing, examine the nuances of Harry’s Kane leadership and dissect one of the most memorable interviews delivered by an England assistant.

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

“The number of roles that are out there, some of which are driven by leagues mandating it, sometimes makes you feel like, ‘Gosh, the clarity and needs analysis piece hasn't happened before somebody's through the door’.

“Team dynamics can feel strained because there’s a bit of confusion about what we even call this: there are about five or six different…

In the first episode of The World Cup Psychology Show, Tim Harkness, Chelsea’s former head of Sport Science & Psychology, who worked with Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge, and David Wheeler, one of the only former pro footballers turned psychologists working in the game, join me to examine how mentally ready England are for the World Cup.

Key talking points:

* The psychological thinking behind England’s squad selection and preparation: we discuss the factors Tuchel, his coaching and backroom team are likely to have taken into consideration when selecting the squad, from the probable use of quantitative psychological evaluations to the emotional skills players such as Jordan Henderson possess.

* Learning from previous tournaments: we look at what’s gone wrong for England in previous European Championships and World Cups and how the team can learn lessons from those exits, focusing on the role of on-pitch communication, team cohesion and emotional regulation.

* Dealing with fatigue and heat: we examine the issues which are likely to dominate the competition, from fatigue to heat, with 25% of games set to take place in 26-plus degree temperatures.

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

What do you need to do to mentally prepare for a World Cup or Olympic Games? And when you’re in the white heat of a major tournament, how do you stick to the performance plans you’ve put in place?

They’re questions Jess Thom has fielded for much of the last decade. Since 2016, she’s worked with Team GB athletes across three Olympic competitions, as well …

How do you go from not winning a top-flight championship in 104 years to taking home four league titles in half-a-decade (whilst also becoming the first club from your country to reach the semi-final of a major European tournament)?

The short answer: stop focusing on results.

If that’s surprising, the longer explanation is even more revealing. In the lat…

It’s one of the most important, but least spoken about, relationships that a psychologist will form. Working effectively with a sporting or performance director can make or break a practitioner’s tenure with a team. So, what’s the secret to forming and sustaining a successful relationship with front office commissioners?

In this episode of The Mind Room …

You’re preparing to face a brilliant Barcelona side on their home turf. Every minute of the game will be a test of your team’s concentration, communication and ability to perform under pressure. How do you psychologically prepare your players?

Morten Bertelsen has an interesting answer to that question. In this week’s edition of the Mind Room podcast, I …

A once high-flying side comes crashing down to earth with a series of devastating losses. A press conference is called. The side’s coach announces the appointment of a sport psychologist.

Unfortunately, as many readers will know, the above scenario is more fact than fiction (just take a look at the build-up to Sascha Lense’s spell as Manchester United’s…

Electrodes pinned to people’s heads. Screens showing everything from neural activity to heartrate variability. Lab technicians making minute adjustments to polygraph machines.

The stereotypical image of a sport psychology laboratory is well-worn. But are images of AC Milan’s Mind Room (the inspiration behind this newsletter) still relevant to running a …

"You're the best sport psychologist I have ever worked with…because you didn't do psychology with me, you treated me.....normally. When I was having a dip in form, you knew what to say, but most of all, when I had some personal issues away from football, you literally just sat with me, did nothing, said nothing, and I can't tell you how much that meant".

'Sam, what's going on?’

Four fairly innocuous words that changed the course of Sam Winnall's career. The ex-Derby County striker was speaking to the club's doctor about symptoms that had seen him feeling low and withdrawing from friends and family, when the question came. The conversation that followed would end with a referral to mental health therapy.

…

It’s not often you speak to someone who’s gone from working with British bobsledders to Australian rowers, so when Bianca Fermi talks about the challenges of establishing a nationwide wellbeing program, you know it’s not an exercise in hyperbole.

In an exclusive interview with The Mind Room, Fermi, who moved to Australia in 2019 after after a two-year s…

“Africa is 10 years behind in addressing mental health.”

Ex-Botswana national team psychologist Dr. Tshepang Tshube, speaking to Jonathan Harding

The days of the Africa Cup of Nations being derided as some kind of second-rate tournament are largely over. The 2024 tournament was watched by an estimated audience of more than 2 billion people. Over the next …

This is the second half of a two-part conversation with Team Europe & Wigan Warriors psychologist Tom Young. To catch up on Part 1, click here or use the embedded link below.

It’s not often that the Ryder Cup and rugby league are mentioned in the same breath. The contrast between the sun-drenched fairways of Bethpage and rain-soaked pitches in Wigan is s…

It’s not often that the Ryder Cup and rugby league are mentioned in the same breath. The contrast between the sun-drenched fairways of Bethpage and rain-soaked pitches in Wigan is stark, to say the least.

But, in the form of Luke Donald and Matt Peet, the competitions share two standout leaders. Psychologist Tom Young has been fortunate enough to work w…

Sometimes, stats really help to paint a picture. Tim Harkness worked at Chelsea for 14 years, between 2009 and 2023, during which time the London club won 14 major trophies. Whilst no-one's claiming that Tim’s time at the club was as significant as some of the coaches he worked with, from Jose Mourinho to Carlo Ancelotti, it’s also true that sustained sporting success (spanning different coaches, owners and, of course, players) is usually underpinned by sound backroom practices.

In the second part of a two-episode interview with Tim, we look at how he worked with coaches from Antonio Conte to Frank Lampard, why Thomas Tuchel’s approach to supporting backroom staff left such an impression on him and what lessons there are to take from a near decade-and-a-half stint at Stamford Bridge.

You can listen to the second part of this two-episode conversation via the audio player above. Part 1, which focuses on the first part of Tim’s tenure at Chelsea, is available here.

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Key takeaways

If you don’t have time to checkout the pod, which I’d definitely recommend doing, here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts on the episode:

* Confidence’s counter-intuitive impact on performance: the reality, from Tim’s experience, is that some of the very best players in the world (and we’re talking about the top 0.1%) aren’t actually as wedded to self-improvement as you might think. Their belief in their ability (backed, it should be said, by experience of winning the biggest titles in football) is such that confidence fuels performance. This strips away some of the negative side-effects, such as self-dissatisfaction and introspection under pressure, of an over-zealous drive to improve. Tim joked about a piece of advice he gave to coaches (‘Don’t care too much, don’t try too hard and don’t try to get better’) and whilst this might not sound like performance principles made for elite football clubs, there’s more than a grain of truth in that triumvirate.

* Game intelligence translates to off-pitch interactions: the common perception of Antonio Conte is of a manically-focused, machine-like manager, perhaps lacking the social skills associated with some of the other coaches Tim worked with, such as Carlo Ancelotti. But Tim was emphatic when I asked him about Conte’s ability to collaborate with support staff: as a former Italian international, imbued with the intelligence to read other players (and, by proxy, people), Conte knew how to get the best out of people. He employed his brother to act as an intermediary between the coaching and analysis staff. He also employed a fitness coach who acted as conduit with the performance team. Conte might be robotically tunnel-visioned when it comes to winning, but there’s a social strategy behind his methods.

* How a head coach should protect his support staff: during our conversation, Tim singled out a story showing Thomas Tuchel’s way of working with his backroom team. Ex-Chelsea midfielder Hakim Ziyech picked up a calf strain and the support staff were concerned about his load, to the point where Tim suggested the Moroccan should be left out of the following game. The recommendation, which Tim provided to Tuchel in written form, was accepted and Ziyech was rested, much to the midfielder’s consternation. The former Ajax winger stormed around the Chelsea training ground, demanding to know who had propsoed resting him. On hearing the fallout, Tim spoke to Ziyech, showed him the data underpinning his recommendation to rest and told Tuchel about the conversation, saying that he felt it was his duty to tell the player. Tuchel’s reaction was emphatic. As Tim recalls, the German head coach’s reply was simple: ‘No, I’m the one that’s going to take the hit for that’. Tuchel explained that he took the decision to leave Ziyech out of the team and would take full responsibility for the selection. Not only did the now-England head coach talk to Tim, but he also followed the one-on-one by addressing the entire non-playing staff, saying: “I will never criticise what you do and I will never criticise you for sharing your opinion.” It’s an episode that speaks volumes for Tuchel’s integrity and paints a picture of how head coaches should support their backroom teams.

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Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

Performance directors have a huge say in how seriously an organisation treats sport psychology. They can ensure the profession is integrated effectively alongside other support specialisms - or decide the discipline isn’t really their cup of tea.

But despite their influence, there’s precious little publicly-available insight about how they view psycholo…

Sometimes, stats really help to paint a picture. Tim Harkness worked at Chelsea for 14 years, between 2009 and 2023, during which time the London club won 14 major trophies. Whilst no-one’s claiming that Tim’s time at the club was as significant as some of the coaches he worked with, from Jose Mourinho to Carlo Ancelotti, it’s also true that sustained sporting success (spanning different coaches, owners and, of course, players) is usually underpinned by sound backroom practices.

In this episode of the Mind Room podcast, we look at how Tim helped to build Chelsea’s sport science and psychology setup, what he did to develop relationships with figures like Bruno Demichelis (Chelsea’s former Human Performance Director and founder of AC Milan’s ‘Mind Room’) and why ‘surviving’ as a sport psychologist in elite football is about much more than sport psychology.

You can listen to the first part of this two-episode conversation via the audio player above. Part 2, which will focus on the second half of Tim’s tenure at Chelsea, will be available soon on The Mind Room site soon.

Key takeaways

If you don’t have time to checkout the pod, which I’d definitely recommend doing, here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts on the episode:

* Adapt your approach to your surroundings: it sounds like an obvious point, but how many of us (in any walk of life, let alone elite football, where support staff are hired and fired with disheartening regularity) have tried too hard to leave an immediate imprint on an organisation? Tim would have been easily forgiven for experimenting as soon as he arrived at Stamford Bridge, particularly given the backing he received from Bruno Demichelis (Ancelotti’s right-hand man, in many respects), but he realised he was joining a club with an established culture, natural leaders sprinkled throughout the squad and a track record of performing under pressure. So, a chunk of the early part of Tim’s tenure was devoted to relationship building across the organisation, from Ancelotti all the way down to academy coaches and backroom team members.

* Being a sport psychologist is not just about sport psychology: during our conversation, Tim tells a tale of taking a first-team team-talk, just prior to a 6-0 win. Despite the victory, he wasn’t invited to address the side in the dressing room again. Whatever the decision was down to, it backs up Tim’s point that the job would be so easy ‘if it was just sport psychology.’ In reality, at a club like Chelsea, it’s as much about responding to unusual requests and slight setbacks (such as the team talk example Tim cites), as it is about holding group workshops and one-on-one sessions.

* Stakeholder engagement isn’t just about the first-team: there will be spells during a sport psychologist’s time with a team where they might not be flavour of the month. After enjoying the backing of Bruno Demichelis and establishing a relationship with Carlo Ancelotti, Tim had comparatively little interaction with the Italian’s successor, Andre Villas Boas. Rather than bashing his head against a brick wall, Tim chose to spend time with the academy and loan management teams, developing links with figures like Eddie Newton (who would go on to work as the club’s assistant manager during Roberto Di Matteo’s time in charge). It was a smart strategy, which paid off in spades as Chelsea doubled-down on backing an academy now ranked as one of the best in the world.

* Backroom team relationships can be just as important as specialist skills: it was really interesting to hear Tim reference the player relationships he and his backroom team colleagues built, when we discussed the impact of the head coach changes Chelsea made between 2011 and 2013. Tim points out that the managerial flux was in contrast to a relatively settled squad of support staff, who were able to provide incoming coaching teams with invaluable institutional knowledge and understanding of first-team dynamics. It underscores the point that support staff, beyond their specialist skillset, provide value to coaching teams in a range of different ways.

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

 “If I was Luke Donald, I would be getting together and - understanding and respecting that each individual player has their own way of mentally dealing with pressure - saying, ‘How can we share ways that each individual is going to deal with the pressure and how can we help each other to do that?’….I think it’s that coordination of managing the (crowd)…

Hello Mind Room Members!

In this edition of the Sport Psychology Snapshot series, I run a quick health check over the profession’s job market, analysing the organisations and teams hiring sport psychologists (as well as mental performance and player care & wellbeing professionals), reflect on insights from interviews with Stuart Middleton, Jon Brady and…

It only takes two fingers to count the number of sport psychologists I’ve spoken to about their involvement in coach recruitment. I talked to the first of the pair, Alex Auerbach, last year, as part of a conversation in which the ex-Toronto Raptors Head of Wellness & Development revealed how his behaviour-based questioning and character assessments help…

Bodies strewn across the turf. Players locked in thousand-yard stares. This wasn't how the last day of Northampton's season was meant to look.

The end of the 2021-22 campaign will live with Jon Brady forever. His side were seemingly set for automatic promotion from English football's League Two. 25 minutes into the final match of the season, their closes…

“I was interested in how could we move away from the experience of sport psychology we'd had - that I didn't think was particularly impactful - to one really focused on what I believed was the essence of what we were all trying to do, which was drive performance on the field.”

Simon Middleton doesn’t waste words. The former England head coach, who led th…

Business development. Entrepreneurship. Marketing. Not three of the skills you’d necessarily associate with becoming a sport psychologist, but a trio of competencies that are increasingly important for students and trainees to understand.

That’s the view of Dr Nick Wadsworth, psychologist and senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, who spok…

Childish. Emotional. Tiresome. Whatever your take on the antagonism that marked the end of the fourth test between England and India, it’s difficult to argue that the episode has done anything other than intensify the mental battle that will play out during the series decider at The Oval.

Predicting how the two teams will psychologically prepare for the fifth Test is trickier, though. In this episode of The Mind Room podcast, Harshal Patel, Indian T20 international, and Tim Harkness, Head of Soccer Affairs at the Saudi Pro League and Chelsea's ex-Head of Psychology and Sport Science, examine the strategies and tactics that coaching, backroom and playing staff might employ to gain a mental edge.

The duo look at the situations that both sides could face in the fifth Test, how individual and team characteristics might influence their reactions and what impact this may have on a psychological battle that could define the series.

You can listen to the episode in full via the audio player at the top of this article.

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

“We don’t lack care, but we lack coherence…there’s a lack of clarity, shared language and understanding…and it creates some cracks that might be not beneficial for the players and staff who actually need support.”

Leif Gunnar Smerud might be the only coach in Europe with a UEFA Pro Licence and clinical psychology qualification to his name.

The ex-Crystal …

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 “ Clubs say to coaches, ‘You’ve go to manage all the players, the 50 staff that we have and manage up to the CEO and across’…but there’s really no education (for coaches) …

Over the course of the 2023/24 season, Spurs defender Christian Romero travelled 162,000km to and from matches for the London club and his country, Argentina (that’s over a third of the way to the moon, for those that like a slightly tangential, space-based barometer).

Almost two years on from the FIFPRO report that highlighted Romero’s journeys - and a…

It’s hardly news to say that sport has an identity crisis. Article after article berates teams for failing to support athletes seeking to understand who they are away from the field of play. But how can coaches and backroom teams provide the type of help which will turn the tide?

It’s a question football needs to answer. A study of the Spanish youth syst…

“There’s a robotic element flooding in…where’s the freedom in that football match? The players are scared to death of making a mistake.”

Gary Neville, speaking after the Manchester derby, April 2025

Pundits don’t always get it right, but Gary Neville’s comment seemed to strike a chord with viewers who had the misfortune of watching the last Manchester der…

“Imagine if you're offered a job where you're going to work six days a week, you won’t decide when you take holidays, you're going to have to travel twice every second week at least - spending significant time away from home - and we'll give you a one-year or possibly two-year deal, but you’re going to have to perform every week, and even if you perform…

Visual awareness. Decision making. Problem solving. Just three of the terms bandied around on a regular basis when it comes to 'training the brain'. But what are athletes and clubs concentrating on when it comes to identifying and honing cognitive skills?

To answer the question, I spoke to Slawomir Morawski, founder of

“I've talked recently to sports psychologists in high-level positions within professional sports teams who are facing increasing pressure…to try to better objectively test what they're doing with teams.”

Jim Doorley is speaking about an issue that’s affected many of the sport psychologists I’ve talked to over the last half-a-decade.

The US Olympic and Pa…

“My job is made easier…because I've got coaches that care about people. That’s why I constantly keep coming back to the leaders of programs or the leaders of the environment and the way they operate. In blunt terms, it either helps or hinders your ability to get some of your messages across.”

Andrea Furst shoots from the hip. Our conversation is nominall…

It’s a situation that will strike a chord with many sport psychologists. You start working with a team, hear all the right noises before joining, only to discover on day one that your handover notes are essentially a blank piece of paper.

The turnover of staff in elite sport, together with the tendency to focus on short-term goals and over-complicate t…

Artificial intelligence (AI) helps sports teams with analytics, training plans and recruitment. But is there a space for AI in a psychological context and, if so, what would that look like?

In 2023, Markus Raab, Robert Schinke and Charles A. Maher wrote a paper on how technology and artificial intelligence can shape the future of elite sport performance.…

In 2018, basketball player DeMar DeRozan wrote a one-line tweet: ‘This depression gets the best of me’. Shortly after the small forward’s post, Kevin Love penned an article revealing he’d suffered a half-time panic attack during a game against the Atlanta Hawks.

Fast forward seven years and around a third of teams in the NBA employ a full-time mental h…

 ‘Players were telling us that they felt more resilient, more confident and had better communication skills, just over one season, and some of these players can be in academy systems for 10 years, so there's a lot of time to develop them.’

Tom Mitchell’s words are striking. The Doncaster Rovers academy psychology lead is talking about the impact of a programme he’s spearheaded at the English League Two club, focused on harnessing ‘psycho-social’ skills and characteristics (PSCs).

The terminology might sound clunky, but the theory is relatively simple. By defining, monitoring and fine-tuning a player’s mental traits, from confidence to focus, and developing skills such as communication and leadership, coaches can improve an athlete’s performance on the pitch - and help them become well-rounded people off the field of play. As James Barraclough, a sport performance consultant who has also examined the development of PSCs, puts it:

 “It's not just about developing the player: it's about developing the person.

“The vast majority of players in academy football aren't going to go on to play at a professional level, so it's making sure that the 95 percent or so who don't make it aren't just treated as collateral damage.

 “When they transition out of football and into everyday life, they can hopefully use these employability and soft skills to make the academy experience a beneficial one.”

Barraclough and Mitchell’s recent research puts the theory to the test, examining the impact of a personalised approach to honing PSCs within an English football club’s academy.

It’s a project which takes its cue from Mitchell’s two stints with Doncaster, the latest of which has seen him oversee the establishment of a PSC programme. Based on a set of eight ‘pillars’ - covering  commitment, communication, concentration, control and confidence (better known as the ‘five Cs’), plus resilience, self awareness, and presence - the initiative runs across the club's academy.

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Coaches are asked to monitor players’ progress across the eight areas, providing a common language for assessing the academy intake and providing appropriate support. The programme focuses on one pillar per month (with a facet like self-awareness saved to the backend of season, when that skill might come in handy) and couples assessment with practical suggestions on how coaches can work on areas of improvement (such as ‘overloading’ a session to increase a player’s confidence).

The results are encouraging, with players reporting a significant improvement across six of the eight pillars, and Mitchell has managed to circumnavigate the challenges that can come with rolling out an academy-wide programme.

 “It's just about speaking to stakeholders like the academy manager and the head of coaching, and reminding them that definitions of coaching effectiveness include knowledge of personal and social development,” he says.

“If you look at Cote and Gilbert's 2009 coaching effectiveness model, they talk about how a coach needs those things for coaching excellence.

“So I said, ‘Well, if we really want to be excellent, we should have an idea of of young people's development and we should be trying to develop those people. That gives you a little bit of leverage.

“Then you just have to speak to people within clubs to see players don't often get released from academies because they can't play football, especially at the older end.

“They're all excellent players, but usually the things make the difference are the psychosocial things.”

Mitchell and Barraclough's latest project takes the Doncaster model a stage further, homing in on an individual’s ‘super strengths’ and potential areas for improvement - based on the observable behaviours defined in Rovers’ programme - and designing specific sessions (in which a player might be limited to a certain number of touches, for example) focused on both.

The trial showed that this kind of tailored intervention can help improve a player’s ability to self-evaluate and reguate emotions, to name just two of the areas in which the programme proved effective. Whilst Mitchell and Barraclough acknowledge the time constraints and stakeholder politics that can make implementing PSC initiatives tricky, for the Leeds Beckett lecturer doing so is a point of princple:

“We've got a moral responsibility to develop people and that's becoming increasingly mandated as well.

“We need aftercare programs, we try and follow where players go and what they do. So there's all these good reasons to do it and at Doncaster, they're great, they're on board with that.”

Questions?

If you have any queries about the newsletter, get in touch by emailing mindroomenquiries@gmail.com.

Previous articles

As a Mind Room Member, you can access all of the website stories - covering everything from AC Milan’s neuroscience lab to the way English rugby teams are embracing ‘shared mental models’ - via the four sections below:

* Theory

* Practice

* Strategy

* Features

Thanks again for reading The Mind Room!

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“Does anybody think that Premier League football teams are taking on psychologists who are fundamentally saying the way that your coach is treating players is dehumanizing and should stop?”

John Amaechi’s question is simple but stirring. Are elite sports, such as English footba…

In last week’s newsletter, I highlighted some key takeaways from my discussion with Dr. Brett Haskell, the National Women’s Soccer League’s clinical mental health and performance director. Now - for Mind Room Members only - I’m releasing the full interview.

The podcast is an in-depth exploration of how Brett is working with NWSL clubs to setup a system s…

Half-time team talks are the stuff of legend. Alex Ferguson’s ‘hairdryer’ treatment, which the former Manchester United manager reserved for unsuspecting players during his time at Old Trafford, was once seen as a vital reminder of dressing room discipline. Steven Gerrard’s infamous Istanbul speech, credited with helping Liverpool to overcome a 3-0 defi…

Psychologists fighting for fair pay. ‘Fake psychs’ exploiting the lack of regulation governing sport psychology in the UK (and elsewhere). The exorbitant cost of training to become a sport psychologist.

The issues facing the sport psychology profession are well documented (we’ve covered a whole host of them on The Mind Room over the last couple of years), but they deserve continued scrutiny.

In this bumper edition of The Mind Room podcast, Jonathan Harding speaks to Sofie Kent, Shakiba Moghadam and Shameema Yousuf about a topic that seeps into every one of the challenges mentioned at the start of this post: does sport psychology have an access and inclusion problem?

It’s a fascinating discussion which gets under the skin of a complex subject, straddling a whole host of issues, from ‘gatekeeping’ to the sport psychology job market.

You can listen to the conversation via the audio player above, but here are a few sample quotes from the discussion, covering some of the key issues which Jonathan, Sofie, Shakiba and Shameema talked about:

Gatekeeping within sport psychology

“I would say with confidence there are white men who do some gatekeeping and are very particular about who goes through those gates and who doesn't.”

Lack of female and BAME sport psychologists

“There aren't that many women at all, let alone women of colour, in sports psychology, and I think as a result of gatekeeping, it's really difficult for women to progress in particular roles and feel safe, whether it's physical safety, emotional safety or psychological safety.”

“Where we are today is very different and I am stoked to see the number of (university) applications from people of colour coming through the pipeline…but whilst there is quite an equal (gender) balance when you look at some of the spaces…women of colour are really not featuring in those spaces much at all, which I think speaks to a patriarchal, hierarchical system that’s quite toxic at times.”

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Defeminising female psychologists

“Entering football was quite challenging and there were lots of different tips that I'd picked up along the way about defeminising. So, for example, if I was going into a club full time, I wouldn't have my lashes on, I wouldn't be wearing makeup, and I wouldn't have my nails done and you'd wear the kit. So, for me, it was about defeminising.

“But now, as time's gone on, and you see the different kinds of challenges in the environment, you recognize what feminine qualities can bring. So, for example, I'm starting to do lots of work with romantic partners of athletes, and when you're presenting to male staff about some of the challenges the partners face and the impact that it has on performance, some male staff haven't recognised it.”

The cost of education

“One of the only reasons I was able to even do my Master's was because I got a scholarship, which just about covered my fees and rent.

“My PhD was a studentship and the same (financial and workload) issues happened…it's not until you reflect back, that you think that really wasn't right. My mental health was horrendous, but it provided you with the opportunity and you think, ‘Well, imagine if hadn’t happened, would you still be in this job role now’?

“It also inspires you to not want anybody else to have to go through that, to protect those individuals (studying) and to give them that safe space to learn, to have the funding to do it, but not at the cost of their mental health.”

Ineffective regulation

“There are so many ‘catfish’ sports psychologists who are essentially fake…because of their social media following, their great business skills and talking ability, in terms of being able to sell their product, they then sometimes ‘out market’ the people who have trained so hard to be where they are.”

“There's nothing that holds people accountable for saying I'm a psychologist when they're not…and that then exploits people who are trying to seek help, who are trying to get help for whatever it is that they want to get, particularly athletes who are already hesitant to want to go and get help.”

A saturated sport psychology job market?

“I don't think there's necessarily a place for all sport psychology students in the marketplace just yet. Yes, sports psychology is growing. Yes, there are more and more people finding themselves a job within the space - certainly more so than a decade ago - but I don't think the number of jobs justifies the intake of students.”

“The player care role provides a fantastic opportunity to really support young people and first team players within football, in particular in areas that are stressful. So, for example, if you're relocating to the UK and your children need a new school, you need a home and visas, player care is brilliant.

“But because there's been no regulation of that role, academies and football teams are using it as a cheaper way to potentially facilitate a psychological service.

“So whereas a (sport psychology) practitioner may charge £50k a year, the player care (officer) may charge £25k a year. The club don't have to pay anything towards it and they're still thinking that they tick that box. So it's about how much do the club value true psychological support, delivered by a practitioner that aligns with the values and beliefs of that club.”

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